This parliamentary written answer has been drawn to my attention (apologies to who did so: I have forgotten who it was so can’t give credit):

Note that last comment. What does ‘the Government recognises the case for publishing country-by-country reports on a multilateral basis’ mean? For all we know it might be ‘When the Cayman Islands agree that this is a good idea we will do it’. In fact, I suspect that is the case.

5 Responses to “How strong is the government’s commitment to country-by-country reporting?”

Based on observation of the behavioural evidence it would seem reasonable to conjecture that this has the same meaning as “multilateral disarmament” in regard to nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons systems.

In other words, we will do what we want and impose sanctions on anyone who tries anything we don’t approve of.

The question in parliament was specifically about dsicussions with the EU institutions. In that context it is very hard not to conclude that the final line means that the government recognizes the case for public CBCR in the EU. That is how I read it and how I think the public will read it. Especially should the government decide to oppose the proposals when they are put forward by the EC…